Chace Crawford Is Smart Enough to Know His Gossip Girl Character Is Stupid

It’s a known fact that Nate Archibald is the dumbest character on Gossip Girl, too good-looking, the conventional wisdom has it, to bother thinking things through. But not so the actor who plays him, Chace Crawford, who knows Nate is a knave. “It’s gotten so ridiculous, I don’t even know,” he told us at GQ’s Gentlemen’s Ball last night, and immediately pointed out Monday’s most cringe-worthy scene, between Nate and his new love interest, Juliet, a mysterious con artist played by Kate Cassidy. “There’s a scene where she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re all good,’” he said, making like he’s looking at a cell phone in his hand. “‘Oh wait, I just got a text message, I gotta run.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ They really make me look like, you know … “

Like a moron? Chace laughed. “It’s gotten … it’s gotten funny.” So, we casually inquired, testing the waters, What’s Juliet’s deal with her imprisoned brother with the vendetta against Nate Archibald? “I would tell you if anyone on our set knew,” he said. “I’ve read the scripts, and I don’t know.” Fascinating, we thought. They’re even keeping it a secret from the cast, like Lost. But it turns out, he may have just been playing dumb. We also ran into Katie Cassidy, who we’d run into at Elle’s 25th-anniversary party this week. She wouldn’t give us any information. But “it’s good, though,” she said. “It’s very good. It’s juicy.”